A basic tenet of Jose Mourinho's managerial philosophy, it seems, is to equate humility with weakness.

Hence there could not possibly be any retreat from his patently bone-headed stance with Chelsea club doctor, Eva Carneiro, this week. In Mourinho's world, a medic being beckoned onto the field by a referee should, it seems, first seek approval from HIM before tending to the stricken player.

In any sane environment, Chelsea's action in essentially disciplining Carneiro for her somewhat coded Facebook message of expressing gratitude to the public for their support should have them charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

Here, after all, was a doctor doing her job to the letter of the law and, for her troubles, being openly humiliated by a man with all the medical qualifications of a training cone.

It is another sign of Mourinho's patently good football judgment falling foul to contamination from an entirely toxic ego. Worse, Carneiro's banishment from the Chelsea dug-out offers proof that this contamination now carries the formal approval of his employers. Instead of an apology, she gets disciplined.